Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.

Monthly Archives: November 2016

To get rid of contaminants and keep your optic cable functioning optimally you have to clean it regularly.

Tools you need for cleaning

There are many types of tools you need when cleaning the cables. Some of these things include:

Compressed air: Clean dry air is necessary to ensure that the aerosol is free or water, dust, and oil. For ideal results, you should use filtered or canned compressed air. You can easily find the air in your local laboratory supplier or photoshop.

Lens paper: The lens paper is made up of a long fiber that doesn’t have any chemicals. The paper is ideal when you are looking to minimize particulates. You can easily find the lens paper from your local drug store, laboratory supplier, or camera shop.

Methanol: You are discouraged from cleaning the optic cables using chemicals but if you have to, you should go ahead and do it but you should follow the guidelines given by your manufacturer. Just like the other cleaning materials, you can easily find methanol from your local camera shop, pharmacy, or drugstore.

Fiber optic cleaning notes

For ideal results when cleaning the unit you need to observe a number of notes. When cleaning, you should ensure that the fiber optic cable doesn’t come into contact with any surface, including your fingers. You should also avoid bending the cable. This is to avoid breaking the cable which would result in poor performance.

It’s common for optics and optic coating to be easily chipped. To prevent the chips from getting onto your hands you should use finger cots or powder free surgical gloves. To avoid contamination you should only use fresh spectroscopic grade methanol. Before you start the cleaning process, always ensure that the module power is off and the light sources are disabled.

Fiber optic cable cleaning procedure

To achieve ideal results, you should follow a cleaning procedure. You should start with blowing the surface of the fiber optic cable with a stream of clean dry air. This is to dislodge any large, loose particles. You should then place 1-3 drops of methanol at the center of the lens tissue and use it to clean the optical surface. Once you are done examine the optic fiber under high-intensity light using a magnifier. If there are still some contaminants on the surface you should repeat the cleaning process. If clean, immediately install a protective cover.

One of the widely known mediums for financial transaction messaging called Swift has been facing criticism for not being able to fulfill the needs of financial markets around the world. There are some who believe that it has turned out to be inefficient for settling cross-border payments for not being able to manage real-time settlement of any transaction amount and not being transparent in payment status and settlement risk.

Global Payments Innovation – A New Initiative

In response to such criticism, Swift has launched Global Payments Innovation (‘GPI’), which has the ability to make funds available on the same day for B2B transfers that fall in the same time zone. It also offers secure remittance information, end to end payment tracking, and better transparency. The first phase of the project was made live in January this year and is currently in use by twelve banks, including ING, ‘Danske’ Bank, ‘Citi’, and Bank of China. It is currently focusing on B2B payments. Swift has made another commitment to expanding its cross border payment system.

The effort of improving global messaging service might be too small or too late in terms of resolving worldwide payment clearance, payment and settlement blockage, especially for customers from the non-banking sector.

‘Bitcoin’ Remittance Companies

Both new and old ‘bitcoin’ remitters are already working on resolving these issues. They use different ‘blockchains’ to transfer money around the world. Align Commerce is one of the ‘bitcoin’ remittance companies that became famous for $20.25 million in funding. ‘Marwan Forzley’, CEO of Align Commerce, considers distributed ledgers and ‘blockchain’ to be next generation opportunity.

Cross Border Payments in the Global Finance Chain

These payments were around $26 trillion in 2014, which is around 33 percent of the world’s GDP. Due to inconsistent and non-standardized infrastructure, the money will stay trapped in today’s system. For sending payment across the border, a customer has to find a transmitter for managing money transfer. The transmitter will be able to transfer payment due to its contacts with financial institutions in both home and recipient countries. Furthermore, each institution has its own intermediary, which adds more to the complexity of the process. Every bank, involved in managing the transfer, charges its own service fee and it can take 7 days for a process to complete.

The corporate sector around the world was estimated to be $15.7 trillion in 2014. They can negotiate fees between 1 to 2 percent of the payment amount. Whereas, small and medium size companies; and person to person transactions can be charged up to 15%. The hidden cost of these transactions makes it harder for customers who cannot afford it.

If a customer belongs to a ‘underbanked’ or undeserved part of the world, he may not be able to find those paths that may enable simplified cross border payments, for example, taking the services of a transnational bank for payment transfer by using their infrastructure.

Efforts made by ‘Bitcoin’ Remittance Companies

Although, Swift is committed to bringing transparency in cross border payments through ‘GPI’, yet, it failed to provide relief when it comes to customers who cannot negotiate fees. On the other hand, ‘bitcoin’ remittance companies have made efforts to resolve this issue at a small-scale. These companies enable customers to execute borderless transactions at a low and well-controlled cost.

One of the largest ‘bitcoin’ remittance firms called ‘Bitspark’ is based in Hong Kong. The company believes that it has the best long-term prospects despite the lack of traction. The CEO of the company, ‘George Harrap’, said,

“The vast majority of the world’s remittances are not done via banks, but by cash money transfer shops. This will not affect how they manage their business or transactions. Cost will remain the same as remittance companies batch payments anyway, so potentially, reductions in wire fees do not affect companies who transfer $10m per transfer and draw down on this balance for small remits.“

The Problem Persists

Despite Swift’s intention of improving payment transaction recording for its member institutions around the globe, it is possible that innovations inspired by ‘GPI’ may show up in other ‘blockchain’ enabled applications. For instance, ‘HyperLedger’ Project (a project in which Swift is a member) might develop the basis for cross border frameworks in future.

The CEO of ‘ZipZap’, ‘Alan Safahi’, managed to raise $1.1 million in 2014 for expanding its cash to ‘bitcoin’ service. According to him,

“‘ZipZap’ uses a combination of traditional (Swift) bank payment rails and ‘blockchain’ technologies to find the least expensive and most efficient transfer option. The Swift ‘GPI’ is primarily for B2B payments, so it will not impact ‘ZipZap’s’ current business flow.“

It is mentioned in the Ripple that launching ‘GPI’ was more of a step toward staying relevant rather than a step toward modernization.

coinbanks platform is a leading crypto currencies trading platform which provides complete insight and global changes associated with Bitcoin currency.

Most people complain about it. According to research, most people complain once a minute during a typical conversation.

Shocking, right? It was to me.

It’s so socially acceptable to complain that it may not even strike you as strange in the moment.

You may not feel its effects, because you’re so used to it.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you.

The truth? Complaining is so toxic!

Complaining rewires your brain for negativity.

It can even make you sick. The extra cortisol released by frequent complaining impairs your immune system and make you more susceptible to high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and brain strokes.

Also, because we’re social beings, we naturally are affected by the moods of those around us. It’s called neuronal mirroring. Complaining is like smoking: you don’t have to do it yourself to suffer the negative effects.

Just as bad, every time you complain, you are putting yourself in the role of victim.

Playing the victim is bad for your business.

Woah, I’m not a victim, you might say! I’m just letting off steam!

That, my dear friends, is what is called an excuse. You don’t need to complain to let off steam. You can exercise. You can ask for advice and even empathy. You can talk about solutions, after you describe the situation.

So why do we complain?

The fact is, it’s easier to complain than it is to feel the problem and open to solutions. It gives you a little short-term relief.

And it’s a habit. For many of us, complaining is a learned coping mechanism we bring from childhood.

Complaining is a negative energy that interferes with you having the successful business that you can have. It interferes with your impact. It doesn’t change anything.

So I’m challenging you! For the next 30 days, commit to living complaint free.

Your energy will get a boost. Your business will benefit. Your clients and team may comment on the difference in your presence. You’ll see more possibilities. You’ll be more creative. You’ll feel more satisfied. You’ll be EMPOWERED.

During the challenge, if a complaint slips out, it’s OK! This is like any habit – you’ll need time to make the transition.

You as a business owner need to feel a sense of agency, a belief that your decisions have an effect. You need to be empowered.

Living complaint free is a great way to empower yourself. You’ll be surprised at the positive changes that ripple out.

Even if you’re not completely convinced, consider the evidence. Then try it as an experiment in improving your well-being.

Why 30 days? Complaining is a habit. To replace it with something better, you’ll need to do it 30 days in a row.

You can do this! When I first did it, it took me a few tries, but eventually I made it all the way through. And life was never the same.

I’ve needed a few repeats since then! And you may too – that’s all OK!

In today’s competitive business realm, all enterprises must aim for growth and expansion. If a certain business won’t work toward these 2 objectives, it is basically setting itself up for a failure.

Experts highly emphasized that business growth and expansion can successfully be achieved through following time-tested success principles. Such principles will create focus for all your efforts toward growth. Also, they uphold excellent standards for each activity performed toward the goal. Thus, if you are preparing your business for growth and expansion, it is very crucial for you to be aware of the success principles you must uphold.

4 Essential Principles Every Corporation Today Must Uphold

Innovation is a must. Your business must fully understand the needs of your target clients. It should work toward efficiently meeting such needs. Innovation refers to coming up with something that is new and great from something that is already great so you can be able to deliver the best value to end users. This further means that your business must always find time to study meticulously the journey of your target customers so you successfully innovate.

Always be inspired. Most successful individuals say that inspired efforts don’t deplete energy. Instead, they are very invigorating. Moreover, inspiration allows your organization to use your drawbacks to aim for victory. Hence, be always inspired as you are working to expand your venture due to the fact that a joyful process won’t fail to yield the best outcomes.

Timing is very crucial. When it comes to growth and expansion, you cannot be late or early. Bear in mind that plenty of great opportunities are just accessible for a limited amount of time. Also, pre-empting things will spoil their potential. Hence, you must take action at the most ideal time. This will involve the need to study provisions meticulously, to get help from consultants, and to know the different financing solutions that your business can efficiently use.

Expect sacrifices. There will always be sacrifices that must be made if you are aiming for better and bigger things. Indeed, sacrifices are inevitable. And this can mean longer work hours and avoiding some pleasures and physical comforts for a specific period of time or perhaps saving on a couple of things so that your resources can be allocated to more significant aspects of operations.

All of these principles will allow you to properly manage your venture. Consider implementing all of these properly. Surely, you will find your enterprise increasing steadily toward your goal of becoming successful in today’s competitive market arena.